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HANCOCK COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA - BIOS: MILLER, Henry O(published 1923)
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Submitted by
Valerie Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
September 12, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 220-221
Hancock County
HENRY O. MILLER. Perhaps no one man in the educa-
tional life of the Ohio Valley of West Virginia has exerted
an influence finer in quality and purpose than Henry O.
Miller, superintendent of schools of Hancock County, for
it is one proceeding from a character of quiet strength,
sanity and disinterestedness. Mr. Miller not only is a good
teacher, but a man of specialized training and comprehen-
sive learning, as well as capable and progressive executive.
The representative relation of the teacher to the pupil is
a close and intimate one, and few leave the schoolroom
without carrying with them the impress of the character
of the one under whom they have studied, so that it is very
important that the individual who trains the youthful mind
during the formative period be one whose example is worthy
of emulation, a position for which Mr. Miller's qualities and
abilities equip him eminently.
Mr. Miller is a native of the Gas Valley, having been born
in Poe District, Hancock County, West Virginia, three miles
east of Pughtown, October 20, 1876, a son of John P. and
Margaret A. (Campbell) Miller, a grandson of Benjamin
Miller, also born in Hancock County, and a great-grandson
of David Miller. David Miller was born in County Tyrone.
Ireland, and as a young man immigrated to America and
settled first at Pittsburgh, where he spent a few years.
Later, about 1780, he came to the Poe District, where he
passed the rest of his life in agricultural pursuits, and his
old farm is still in the family possession. He was one of
the real pioneers of this locality and experienced the hard-
ships of such a life, including the clearing up of a farm
and warfare with the Indians, by whom he was forced to
leave the community on one occasion and seek refuge in
a more settled locality, but was also of the stuff of which
the pioneers were made, and lived to the remarkable age
of ninety-nine years.
Benjamin Miller, the grandfather of Henry O. Miller
was born in 1799 and spent his life on the same farm,
dying in 1876. The family landed possessions were ex-
tended under his management, and at the time of his death
the property was passed on to his two sons, John P. and
Martin Luther, who spent their lives on that property. A
brother, Morgan H. Miller, still resides on an adjoining
farm, at the age of eighty-one years. He is a veteran of
the Civil war, having fought as a private in Company I,
Ninety-second Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infan-
try. Another brother, Joseph Harvey Miller, died young.
A half-brother, Dr. L. M. Miller, who practiced at Toronto,
Ohio, died at the age of thirty-three years, and a half-sister,
Margaret, married Lawrence W. Glass and now resides
at East Liverpool, Ohio. John P. Miller married Margaret
A. Campbell, a daughter of Robert and Ellen (Young)
Campbell, who were of the same vicinity. John P. Miller
in addition to being a farmer, was quite a sheep breeder
and grower. He and the other members of the family were
democrats until the split between the states of the North
and South, at which time they joined the ranks of the
republican party. For many years the family has been
identified with the Presbyterian Church. David Miller was
an original member of "The Flats" Presbyterian Church,
about four miles distant, and his son Benjamin was an elder
therein, as was also the latter's son, Morgan H. That
church was organized about 1800 and was the parent church
of all the Presbyterian churches of the vicinity. Since 1891
it has been known as the Fairview Presbyterian Church,
and is located about one and one-half miles from Pughtown,
on the Flats. David and Benjamin Miller were buried at
the site of this church, but John P. Miller, who died in
1907, at the age of seventy-five years, was laid to rest
at the Mill Creek Hill Cemetery, as was his worthy wife,
who passed away in 1903, at seventy years of age. They
were the parents of the following children: Joseph Harvey,
who died at the age of thirty-four years while an employe
of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Pittsburgh;
Elmer A. and B. S., partners on the old farm until it was
sold, and now both residents of Pughtown; William M.,
who is engaged in the practice of medicine at Clinton,
Pennsylvania; Robert Sherman, twin of Benjamin S., men-
tioned before, who left West Virginia as a lad and is now
a retired farmer of Summer, Nebraska; Margaret Ellen,
who died at Chester at the age of forty-five years as the
wife of Lawrence L. Stewart; Mary Jane, the wife of Frank
F. Mayhew, living near Salem, Ohio; and Henry O.
Henry O. Miller acquired his early education in the coun-
try schools, following which he attended the Tri-State
Normal School, then at Pughtown, of which the president
was J. D. Hull. At the age of twenty years he began
teaching, and spent the next eight years in Hancock County,
during four years of which time he was principal of schools
at Pughtown. In 1909 Mr. Miller was elected superin-
tendent of schools of Hancock County, and consecutive re-
electiona have brought him to his fourth term. In 1909,
when he first assumed the duties of this office, there were
fifty-eight schools and fifty-eight teachers, with two high
schools at New Cumberland and one at Chester. There are
now 125 schools, with four first-class high schools. The
enrollment in 1909 was 1,000 pupils, whereas now there
are 4,000 pupils, of whom about 300 are attending the
high schools. Much hard work was necessary to interest
the people in the advantages of high school training, but
a splendid sentiment has arisen in this direction. About
ninety-five per cent of the teachers have had normal school
training. The Tri-State Normal School continued only until
1906, but many of the high school graduates attend normal
schools elsewhere in West Virginia, as well as in Pennsyl-
vania and Ohio, and at the present time preparations are
being made for summer normal terms in Hancock County.
Mr. Miller is devoted to his work and is an earnest striver
after an elevation of standards. His labors have resulted
in arousing public interest and in gaining him the co-opera-
tion of teachers, parents and pupils.
In 1911 Mr. Miller was united in marriage with Miss
Sarah Wells, daughter of William H. Wells, of East Liver-
pool, Ohio, and granddaughter of George Wells, whose old
home stood on the present site of Newell. A blockhouse
once stood on the old Wells farm and Indian relics picked
up there are now in the possession of Mr. Miller. George
Wells was an old steamboat owner and followed the river,
and also followed farming until his farm was all sold to
the townsite company. His son, William H., who was a
carpenter by trade, died in 1920, age seventy-one years.
Mrs. Miller, who was born at East Liverpool, Ohio, is active
in the Ladies' Aid Society of the Presbyterian Church, of
which she and her husband have long been members. He
belongs to the Blue Lodge of Masonry at New Cumber-
land and has attained to the Scottish Rite degree. Mr.
Miller is well known as a public speaker in the line of
educational work, and his services in this direction are
frequently in demand.
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